Global Electricity Review 2024
By global energy think-tank Ember, fifth edition of its annual report
1st time in world, renewable energy is accounting for 30% of total energy generation, most of this addition comes from solar and wind energy sources.
India is now the world’s third-largest solar energy producer, behind China and the US, and ahead of Japan
It looks at 80 countries and assesses their energy growth, since they make up 92 percent of global electricity demand.
the goal of the COP28 climate summit (held in Dubai last year) is to triple renewable energy capacity by 2030, renewable energy is expected to make up 60 percent of global energy consumption by then.
in 2022, global solar capacity addition was 268 GW, according to BloombergNEF, while it was 444 GW in 2023.
solar has surpassed wind as the fastest-growing renewable energy source.
The Global Electricity Review 2024 also highlighted that while solar and wind energy generation saw 23 percent and 10 percent growth, respectively, in 2023. Fossil fuel generation logged 0.8 percent growth in the same period.
major economies are “steadily declining” in coal generation
US saw a 19 percent fall, switch to natural gas from coal
European Union saw a 25 percent slump in coal generation, wind and solar energy that contributed to this reduction.
Japan saw a 6.3 percent decline
India, however, is still one of the top four coal generating countries, along with China, Vietnam and Mexico.
the rise in fossil fuel generation in China and India in 2023 was due to recurring droughts that reduced their capacity to generate hydro-energy. In India, hydro-generation dropped by 15 percent while China saw a 4.5 percent drop, according to the report.
This rise in solar energy has occurred steadily, with India’s current solar capacity being 17 times higher than its 2015 capacity.
